


changing times

by Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell



Category: Animorphs - Katherine A. Applegate
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-30
Updated: 2018-12-30
Packaged: 2019-09-30 17:49:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17228537
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell/pseuds/Jace_Diaz_Of_Hell
Summary: Ahris doesn't know where to go now





	changing times

It went like this.

 

In the short time before the final battle, Visser One (formerly Visser Three) pressed the morphing cube into the hands of Ahris 473- commonly known as Sub-Visser 38. Visser One's personal assistant, and, if the rumors were to be believed, his wife.

 

(The rumors were true.)

 

Ahris looked down at this small blue box and felt the end of her world begin.

 

She said nothing of the sort- she would never admit defeat that way. Instead, she pressed her palm to Visser One's face and looked him right in the eyes.

 

“Kick their asses. And come home.”

 

Visser One boarded the Pool Ship and Ahris watched him go, knowing that either one of them was likely to not come back.

 

In the back of her mind, she could feel her host's panic start rising up. McKenzie Thomas had discussed the plan at length with Ahris, but now Ahris wondered if she had second thoughts.

 

_ Are you still sure about this?  _ Ahris asked her host.

 

She tapped into the flow of McKenzie's thoughts and felt the woman's resolve strengthen.

 

_ I don't see any other way.  _ McKenzie answered, another wave of fear rippling through her.  _ Someone needs to be there for our children. _

 

Ahris opened up the connection between the two just enough for McKenzie to sense her agreement.

 

And then Ahris disengaged from McKenzie's mind, crawling out of her ear.

 

The Animorphs and the traitorous yeerks would be looking for McKenzie, Ahris reassured herself. A white, middle aged woman, with red hair pulled back in a ponytail.

 

Blind and vulnerable, at the mercy of anyone nearby, Ahris began her morph.

 

Skin- darker than McKenzie's, but not as dark as Vanessa's. Eyes- take the green from McKenzie's, mix in brown and blue from her other acquisitions. The result would be sort of kaleidoscopic, hard for a human to identify. Hair- the length and color of McKenzie's, but with more curls. And the defining feature Ahris had to keep- the birthmark sweeping along McKenzie's cheekbone.

 

The result was a woman who had been carefully created, persona already in place, documents and backstory falsified.

 

Eris Forsythe, McKenzie's ‘older half-sister’, became a reality.

 

Ahris, in her new body, turned to face McKenzie- the woman who had been her host for fourteen years. Her co-parent when it came to Vanessa, Batair, and Cyleen. Her friend.

 

McKenzie pressed the dracon beam into Ahris’ hands, then turned and charged into the battle.

 

Ahris watched the woman she knew so well run straight towards her death, and she forced the anger and grief down. She needed to go get her children.

 

The Californian town where she had spent her residence on Earth was in ruins. People were out on the street in droves, running or gathering footage of the overhead battles. Now and then Ahris saw someone scavenging.

 

Finally she made it to the safehouse, her new heart thudding heavily in her chest as she imagined all the worst things that could have happened to their children.

 

When she swung the door open, though, her worries turned out to be unfounded.

 

Vanessa, Batair and Cyleen were all in one corner, and Cyleens eyes lit up when she saw Ahris.

 

Batair was lying down, Vanessa tucked into his side the way they had so often done as toddlers. In Vanessa's lap was Cyleen, who had been scanning the room and sending out ocassional thought-speak pulses of fear.

 

Two of Batairs eyes swung to see Ahris, his stalk eyes continuing to scan the small house.

 

<Mother.> He said, the relief visible in his tone. <I take it Dad is with the troops?>

 

Ahris nodded, crossing the room and sitting cross-legged on the floor by her children. Cycleen immediately crawled into her lap, a silent wave of relief passing through her small features.

 

Vanessa and Batair each took one of her hands and squeezed.

 

They had felt this sense of dread before, but never so intense. Never so silent, so wondering if their father and her husband would come home.

 

_ Esplin,  _ Ahris thought silently,  _ you had better be safe.  _

 

Somewhere, deep in her newly-beating heart, she knew things wouldn't turn out perfect for them.

 

Esplin had had Alloran as a host. An andalite, and a  _ Prince  _ at that.

 

She should have known that she couldn't have everything she wanted.

 

Somehow, though, she had maintaned hope.

 

Until she learned of the seventeen thousand yeerks flushed into space. 

 

Until she saw Alloran-Semiture-Corrass step off of the Pool Ship, obviously free for the first time in twenty-four years.

 

Then, she squeezed her children's hands and listened to Cyleen whimper quietly in her arms. Around her the world felt like it was shattering.

 

If Esplin had been caught, he would be killed, she thought dully. If Esplin had been caught, there were Animorphs or Animorph sympathizers headed to take her too.

 

She stood, and on her wrist, the morphing clocks time ran out.

 

She didn't bother to reset it.

 

In her mind, she was already compartmentalizing his loss, pushing it away until she could properly break down. 

 

Cycleen shifted , her purple-tinged arms wrapping around Ahris’ neck so she could stay in place. Vanessa and Batair stood together, moving in one fluid unit. They got like this sometimes- moving in perfect synch, entirely soundless, blank of any expression but sticking so close together nothing would separate them.

 

Ahris watched as the brother and sister shot each other a look and went to work, darting around the room until all supplies and weapons were in hand.

 

Ahris twitched her head backwards and Batair nodded, moving forwards to join his mother.

 

She looked at him, and remembered how he had just  _ appeared  _ on the Pool Ship during one of the Vissers times there.

 

_ A gift _ , a near-inaudible whisper in her mind said,  _ from the Ellimist. _

 

She shook her head to clear it and waved the children forward. Later. She would have time to question later.

 

_ (There was time to question and to answer questions. There was wondering how life would have been if Esplin had escaped, and there was wondering how she would hold their family together. _

 

_ One day, someone had found out where they lived, and Ahris had found Vanessa screaming at Marco. _

 

_ “How could you even say you love him!?” The Animorph had demanded, his voice half a roar. _

 

_ “Like this!” Vanessa yelled back, a question and an answer. “I love Visser One. He's my fucking  _ **_dad._ ** _ He's the one who protected me, and made me laugh, and helped me grow up. He's my  _ **_family_ ** _ , and fuck you if you think I shouldn't love the yeerk who raised me to be who I am!” _

 

_ Pride and tears both rose in Ahris at her daughter who fought so hard for their fractured family. _

 

_ She wished Esplin was there to see her. _

 

_ Twenty minutes later they were gone, up in the air and headed somewhere else, Cyleen reading in Ahris lap and Vanessa swearing under her breath at the weapons post.) _

  
  



End file.
